1. Field of the Invention
The instant disclosure relates to remote control; in particular, to a remotely controllable electronic device.
2. Description of Related Art
The remote control for television is developed in the 1950s. Initially, the remote control is wired to the television. The first wireless remote, introduced in 1955, was called the Flashmatic. The Zenith remote shined highly focused light beams on the receivers located around the screen of the television. At present, many home appliances are able to be controlled by the corresponding remote controls, such as the televisions, the DVD/CD players, the set-top boxes, or the stereo sets.
Please refer to FIG. 1 showing a block diagram of a conventional remote control system. A remote control system 1 comprises a dedicated remote control 11 and a remotely controllable electronic device 12. The remotely controllable electronic device 12 comprises a power supply 121, a actuating means 122, a control unit 123, a status indicating unit 124 (e.g., LED shown in FIG. 1), keypad 125, an IR receiver 126, a power plug 127 and a switching element 128. The IR receiver 126 receives the IR control signal from the dedicated remote control 11, and then the control unit 123 generates a corresponding function signal to control the actuating means 122. The actuating means 122 is utilized to perform the functions of the controlled electronic device 12. For example, the electronic device 12 may be a lamp or a fan, in which the actuating means 122 would perform the functions of the electronic device 12. For example, when the electronic device 12 is a lamp or a fan, the actuating means 122 may be the lamp driver or the motor of the fan. It is worth mentioning that the power plug 127 is for connecting to a power source (e.g., the city power supply), and the switching element 128 (which is usually the power button) is for switching the power status of the electronic device 12. The control unit 123 usually has a demodulator circuit 1231, a logical circuit 1232 (e.g., a MCU shown in FIG. 1) and a memory unit 1233. The demodulator circuit 1231 connected to the IR receiver 126 demodulates the IR control signal from the dedicated remote control 11, and the demodulated result is transmitted to the control unit 1232. The logical circuit 1232 executes a function process according to the demodulated result, wherein the logical circuit 1232 may read the memory unit 1233 to perform the corresponding functions.
However, each electronic device usually has its dedicated remote control; therefore many remote controls could exist in each family for everyday life. The user needs to utilize the dedicated remote control to control the corresponding electronic device, which is not convenient for the user. Furthermore, the manufactures of the electronic devices need to design the dedicated remote controls corresponding to their electronic products, and the related cost of the remote controls may not be saved.